From Massacre To Mandate — Israel’s Two-Year Battle For The Free World

Hamas and Israel announced early this morning an agreement on the “first phase” of a peace deal which includes the “immediate” return of “all” living hostages.

But don’t celebrate just yet: in the same breath Hamas said it has “lost communication” with some living hostages and that the 72 hour deadline is “unrealistic” and “theoretical.” Is this merely the first of many pretexts by which Hamas will hold hostages indefinitely? Will Israel be forced to resume combat in response? Maybe. 

In the meantime, as we mark two years since the October 7 massacre, we can confidently say that Israel has already changed the world - for the better. Here’s how we got here:

October 7, 2023 saw the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. 

Modeled on Muhammad’s 7th century “Khaybar Massacre,” the October 7 atrocities included mass rape, ritual beheadings, horrific torture and more. The internationally designated Hamas terror organization continues to hold Israelis hostage, under horrifying conditions: many in a state of starvation, that resembles images of the Holocaust. One hostage, Evyatar David, was recently forced to dig his own grave on camera.

This is what Israel has been fighting. 

Hamas was not acting alone - it was merely a small part of Iran’s “ring of fire” strategy: Iranian proxies surrounding Israel on all sides, including: 

• The Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon with some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israeli cities and towns from right across the border; 
• Bashar Assad’s Syria; 
• Long range drone and ballistic missile fire from the Houthi terror organization in Yemen; 
• and of course, the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip, which is just feet from Israeli towns and only 40 miles from Tel Aviv. 

Iran’s “ring of fire” served both as a deterrent to protect its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, while also building toward a future October 7 style massacre on a far greater scale: one that could end Israel, and all of its citizens, entirely. 

Even after Iran pummeled Israel with the largest ballistic missile attack in human history, alongside cries of “death to Israel, death to America” in the Iranian parliament, the Jewish state remained highly cautious in its response.

This unsustainable balancing act had, for decades, become the Middle East’s “status quo.” Yet just when conditions seemed hopeless and intractable, Israel began to change the world. 

• Days after October 7, 2023, Israel began its military campaign in Gaza: a desperate effort to retrieve the hostages, and create a safer future for all Israelis - even as Hamas promised to repeat the massacre, “a second time, and a third time and a fourth time.”
• A year later, the famous “beeper” (or “pager”) operation in Lebanon began the near total dismantling of the Hezbollah terror organization. 
• Without Hezbollah’s protection, it was just a matter of time before Bashar Assad gave up his family’s half century reign in Syria and fled to Russia. 
• With Hezbollah “off the table” Israel utterly defied Iran’s air defenses and laid waste to much of the Islamic Regime’s nuclear weapons program, leaving only the most deeply protected sites, hidden underneath the Zagros mountains.  The United States concluded that question, with a massive yet rapid strike by its infamous B2 bombers and their payload of 30,000 pound GBU-57 bombs.

• As the face of the Middle East changed, Hamas was left increasingly isolated, yet continued to enjoy support and encouragement from Qatar and Turkey: where much of its senior leadership continues to reside in safety and luxury. On September 9, Israel changed that equation: with a precision strike on a Hamas leadership meeting in Qatar’s capital of Doha. Though the strike missed some of Hamas’ senior leaders, it nonetheless sent a clear message to Qatar and by extension to Turkey as well: you can no longer host terrorists while enjoying total safety and impunity. 

It is no coincidence that shortly after Israel’s strike inside Qatar, the oil rich Gulf state, as well as Turkey and most of the Arab world, joined for the first time in placing serious pressure on Hamas. This massive realignment allowed U.S. President Donald Trump to present his peace plan on September 29: which calls for the immediate release of all Israeli hostages and the disarming of Hamas, followed by Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and finally, a massive international rebuilding effort. 

Israel promptly agreed to the plan, while Hamas claimed to “agree” before proposing a litany of changes that would effectively undermine the deal entirely. President Trump has threatened severe consequences should Hamas fail to genuinely agree to, and carry out, the deal’s terms. For the first time in two years, most of the Arab world, as well as Turkey, appear to be pressuring Hamas as well.

Israelis are cautiously hopeful.

Even as Hamas and its allies fought a violent kinetic war against the Israeli people, they also fought a massive propaganda campaign, sometimes referred to in the Arab world as the “Diplomatic Intifada.” With financial and logistical backing from Qatar and Iran, this “intifada” achieved significant success, including mainstreaming the myth that Israel is committing genocide and other war crimes. Israel is not.

The cornerstone of Hamas’ “Diplomatic Intifada” has always been the Gaza Ministry of Health: a fully owned and operated subsidiary of Hamas itself. As far as we could discover, every international claim of genocide, war crimes, and depravation, including those asserted by the United Nations, The Hague, NGOs, journalists, and governments, has been based on data from the Gaza Ministry of Health, in other words: from Hamas.

So many parties have blindly repeated Hamas’ data that it is easy to believe the claims originate from multiple independent sources. They do not. Moreover, Hamas is an internationally designated terror organization alongside ISIS and Al Qaeda - all violent fundamentalist groups that have never been considered reliable sources of information. Hamas should be no exception.

By contrast:

• Independent data from the CIA indicates that Gaza has one of the fastest growing populations in the world, over double the growth rate of America itself - a fact that is incompatible with claims of genocide or depravation. 
• Most casualties in Gaza have been males of military age according to Hamas’ own data, which contradicts the terror organization’s misleading press releases. (Hamas, as a rule, does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.) 
• The countries suing Israel at the International Court of Justice have petitioned the Court to change the definition of the word “genocide” in order to make it apply to Gaza, a tacit admission that their claims of genocide are, in fact, untrue.
• The committee that manages the IPC (which tracks global hunger) changed its definition of the word “famine” to make it apply to Gaza, a tacit admission that its claims of famine are, in fact, untrue.
• Independent, internationally peer reviewed academic research shows that Israel has moved more calories into Gaza than could be consumed by every person in Gaza.
• An exposé by Bari Weiss’s “The Free Press” examined the 12 most widely circulated photographs of “starving children” in Gaza, including the front page of The New York Times: every single photograph was found to be either staged or entirely faked. (The New York Times and others subsequently, and very quietly, published retractions or corrections.) In some cases the pictured children appeared underweight due to unrelated genetic disorders that Israel, for years, had been helping to treat: free of charge to the families. 

The above, independent, third party data is consistent with Israel’s own figures, which show that the war in Gaza is, by the numbers, one of the most carefully and humanely managed military conflicts in all of modern history. Indeed, over 1,100 Israeli soldiers have died so far, a number that would be far lower if Israel had simply forgone its careful ground operations in favor of more aggressive, and less precise, air campaigns. 

When we accuse a country as careful as Israel, it sends a terrible message to the world: that being careful doesn’t matter, and that terrorism works.

Despite the grief, pain, and bloodshed of the past two years, despite the lies, the defamation and propaganda, despite all the hours that I and my friends and neighbors have spent in bomb shelters, there is room for hope. The face of the Middle East, the safety of Israel, and the safety of America, are already changing for the better.

Israelis are cautiously hopeful that we stand on the verge of a safer world and a better future, a future based on what the American President has repeatedly called “peace through strength.”

At RealityCheck we are careful to provide support for all relevant facts. Some links above are to our own articles which, in turn, contain links to primary source materials.

Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to restoring public trust in information. An expert on the Middle East and international law, Daniel also serves as an adjunct professor at Israel’s Reichman University (the “IDC” in Herzliya). Daniel and RealityCheck can be found at www.realitycheckresearch.org or at contact@realitycheckresearch.org.

1. School Superintendent’s Shocking Fraud Unraveled—Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal

2. FBI Says Jack Smith Monitored Private Calls Of Nearly A Dozen GOP Senators During Jan. 6 Probe—Harold Hutchison, DCNF  

3. Prayer: The Most Powerful Weapon—Mario Enzler, The Daily Signal

4. Well Said, Senator Schmitt—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

5. What To Know About Biden Judge Who Gave Lenient Sentence To Kavanaugh Assassination Plotter—Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal

6. Kavanaugh Would-Be Assassin’s Light Sentence Sends Message That Violent Left Faces Different Standard —Jarrett Stepman, The Daily Signal

7. Texas Ends ABA’s Accreditation Monopoly In The Lone Star State—Zack Smith, The Daily Signal

8. Families Of Hostages Hopeful, ‘Sense A Shift’ On 2nd Anniversary Of Oct. 7 Attack On Israel—Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal

9. Americans Want COVID-19-Era Policies To Sunset, Poll Finds—George Caldwell, The Daily Signal

10. ‘A Lot Of Those Jobs Will Never Come Back’: Trump Extends Deadline For Firing Federal Workers—Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal 

11. Taiwan Signals Readiness To End Russian Naphtha Imports At EU’s Request—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

12. Bondi Derides Durbin In Fiery Testimony—Jacob Adams, The Daily Signal 

13. ‘RADICAL COMPANY’: Republicans Slam Spanberger’s History Teaching At School Tied To Hamas—Tyler O'Neil, The Daily Signal

14. Comey Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Charges Stemming From 2020 Testimony—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

15. Trump Threatens Illinois Leaders As Guard Deployments Face Legal Hurdles—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

16. FAA Staffing Shortages Worsen As Shutdown Enters Eighth Day—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

17. Fears Of Trillion Dollar AI Bubble—TIPP Infographics, TIPP Insights

18. Bitcoin ETFs Drive $10B Inflows, Creating Record Supply Crunch—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

19. Polymarket Founder Becomes Youngest Billionaire After NYSE Owner’s $2B Bet—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

20. Elon Musk's X Reaches $128 Million Deal With Fired Twitter Executives Over Unpaid Severance—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

21. Palisades Fire: Arson Suspect Used ChatGPT Before Setting Los Angeles Inferno, Officials Say—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

📊 Market Mood — Thursday, October 9, 2025

🟡 Markets on Pause Before Powell
U.S. futures were little changed as traders awaited remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other officials. With few fresh data points amid the government shutdown, investors looked for clues on future rate cuts.

🟢 AI Momentum Holds Steady
AI-driven optimism continued to support equities, even as some analysts questioned the sustainability of recent tech valuations. Major indexes hovered near record highs.

🔵 Earnings Season Preview: Pepsi, Delta Impress
PepsiCo beat estimates on strong demand for energy drinks and healthier options, while Delta surged on record revenue and an upbeat outlook despite the shutdown.

🪙 Gold Eases From Record Highs
Gold slipped slightly to around $4,038 an ounce after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas reduced safe-haven demand, though prices stayed near historic peaks.

🛢️ Oil Slips on Ceasefire and Inventory Build
Crude prices fell as easing Middle East tensions and higher U.S. inventories outweighed OPEC+ restraint, with WTI settling near $62 per barrel.

📅 Key Events Today

🔵 Thursday, October 9
08:30 – Fed Chair Powell Speaks
Remarks on monetary policy and the economic outlook.
08:30 – Initial Jobless Claims
Weekly report on new filings for unemployment benefits.
13:00 – 30-Year Bond Auction
Treasury auction results for long-term bonds.